Towheeblog

Great Gray Owl aficionado, Lee French, is at it again.  Adult owl with vole.  Killing but not eating hints that this may be an adult male with fledglings (they would surely be out of the nest this late in the summer) awaiting a snack in the woods nearby.  This meadow is in the Cascades of Jackson County.  Click here to watch video.

If it is a male adult with young to feed (likely the mother owl has left the area as she deigns to compete for food with her off-spring and mate) he needs at least four kills per day for each young, and as much for himself.  Needs rodent-rich meadows and lots of hunting time.  If he has two owlets to feed (pretty typical in this area) and himself, that’s a dozen voles and other mammals of equal size. Every twenty-four hours. GGOs will take moles, shrews, mice and any other really small prey.  They will not take golden-mantled ground squirrels which are abundant in the southern Cascades on the west slope–too large.